An image sensor is typically made to be incorporated within a digital image sensing device, and such digital image sensing devices can then furthermore be arranged to operate in conjunction with a host system. A “digital image sensing device” is defined as any image sensing device that provides a digital representation of a scene or an image. In such a case, the host system can be running one or more applications which receive, interpret and perform operations on the image data obtained from the digital image sensing device.
The raw image data gathered by a pixel array of the image sensor is post-processed by circuitry of the image sensor and/or the image sensing device, for example to be pleasing to the human eye, or to compress the data for storage. The type of post-processing that is applied depends on the type of digital image sensing device within which the image sensor is incorporated. Thus, at present, a digital image sensing device can only supply image data in a single format at any one time.
In the case where a digital image sensing device is only used for a single purpose, the image sensing device is customized to transmit image data in the single format which is optimal for post-processing by a particular application on the host system. However, in the case where the host system can run more than one type of application, either simultaneously or individually, the supply of image data in only a single format may prove problematic. While the image data may be in a format that is ideal for a first application, the performance of the other applications or processing tasks that are running or that can run on the host system may be detrimentally affected by the post-processing.
Each specific application can include an extra processing step to filter or otherwise manipulate the image data obtained. However, this increases the processing power required by the host system to run the applications, and also raises issues of interoperability between different image processing devices and different applications.